The Technology Addiction

I'll be the first person to admit that the idea of forgetting my iPhone at home is enough to make me hyperventilate and come down with a case of the cold sweats. If you're like me, you're whole life is stored in your phone. I'm nauseatingly punctual, but I would be more willing to be late somewhere then have to go even an hour without my phone with me.

But it struck me today, just how ridiculously dependent we are on the technology of our phones (and other devises). We're so dependent in fact, that we literally forget basic functions of "outdated technology."

When I arrived at work this morning, the front counter was in a complete tizzy because they couldn't get a fax to go through to a customer. We're not talking an overly geeky group of tech guys either... We're talking about a group of guys that I thank my lucky stars every day that they've figured out how to turn on their computers. The consistent rejection of the fax was met with a stream of expletives and sheer outrage that this machine was a piece of junk. They complained that they've had problems with it from the moment it was installed and that no one (meaning our IT guy) had bothered to replace it despite they're repeated requests.

Since they were in such an uproar, I took the quote back to my desk and faxed it over to the customer. Once I was finished I went back up front to investigate just what could possibly be going on with the machine. See, they use the same kind of machine and mine had worked without any errors and I've never had a problem with it. After closer examination I discovered exactly what was happening. They were not dialing the 1 before the phone number!

Now I understand that in cell phone land it simply auto-corrects this for you and dials the number you actually mean to dial. Land lines people are just not that sophisticated. So when sending a traditional fax, please remember to dial 1 and then the number. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you!